“Do you know you can grow your business really fast without money?”

“Really? Money Talks! And when times are bad, it’s the only conversation worth having!”

“Listen idiot! Even in business, money isn’t everything!”

“Listen Smart One, even in business, it’s all about the money!”

That was a conversation I was having with my girlfriend and business colleague. I really don’t know who sent me to start that conversation with her. On reflection, I was hanging by the beach most of the day and the salt water must have relaxed even my brain muscles.

So having dismissed her, I am now asking you: do you know you can grow your business really fast without money?

You don’t?

Well you’re in luck! I know at least 7 super cool essentials that once you have them, and you use them in your business, not only will you grow your business fast, you will see an appreciable rise in your income.

Let me share them with you. Actually, I really want to share them because as small business owners, you can always do with some ideas on how to grow your business without money.

But before I do, here are Brian Tracy’s 7 strategies that you can add to mine:

Now here are my essentials: 

1.  Supreme self-confidence

  I can’t stress this enough.

If you don’t have confidence in your capacity to create and bring a product or service to market, if you don’t have the confidence to seek out and build the relationships to grow your business, if you don’t have the confidence to market the heck out of you and your business,  then no amount of money can help you.

You see, when you have a small business, “YOU” are your business and your business is you. Your business will only go as far as you have the confidence to take it.

That’s why I developed my Rapid Scale Leadership Programme to help you scale your business by concentrating on your leadership.

2.  Big Thinking will help you grow your business fast 

Look, if you’re going to think, you might as well think big.

You may not want to believe this but it takes the same effort to think small as it does to think big. So why waste your  energy on small thinking?

Furthermore, by now you know that the universe conspires to bring forth whatever you conceive. Hey, if you just want enough to get by, don’t blame your business for providing just that.

However, if you aim for the sky and you fall short you will still reach the clouds. But if you just aim for the rooftop, you may never get off the ground.

So think big but take small steps towards your goal so you won’t overwhelm yourself.

3.  Continuous Learning

Right here, right now, stop the foolishness about not having time to be learning all the time.

For starters, continuous learning facilitates big thinking, builds self-confidence and encourages innovation.

As a matter of fact, when I asked small business owners for their best business solutions, continuous learning scored high among them.

Now don’t rush out and start learning as though you lived at “Dulland” for half your life and now your grandfather has died and left you a house at “Knowledge Ville”.

Continuous learning requires a conscious strategic approach in which you begin by learning how to learn.

Then you need to have breadth and depth of knowledge – about your business, your industry, your customers, your competition and even your enemies.

Seek out knowledge in the obvious and the not so obvious places, but be sure to avoid information overload. Never stop learning and develop the habit of mastering something that is difficult to learn but necessary to know.

4.  Focus on the Majors as well as the Minors

No, I have not gone all musical on you…

But too many small business people and entrepreneurs either only understand the “big picture” and pay little attention to details or are very good at fitting the pieces of the puzzle together, without even looking at the picture on the box.

Being able to balance the “majors” and the “minors” is a very valuable business asset that if you work on honing, you will see success in your business that you thought could only come with hard cash.

5.  Be a “T-Shaped” leader to grow your business fast

To help you understand my point, I want you to think of the two strokes that make up the letter “T”.  They are  the downward stroke (|) and the stroke across the stop. (-)

The downward stroke represents your core skills and is probably the reason you got into business in the first place.  But you must have learnt by now that when you have only a single skill, it is not enough to sustain, far less grow your business.

This means, you also have to learn a collection of business related skills which represent the cross stroke of the “T”. These include marketing, negotiating, networking, cash management, people management, time management, to name a few.

When you work on acquiring at least some of these skills, you create a powerful force for attracting and keeping money.

6.  Meaningful, strategic relationships

There is a line of thought among too many entrepreneurs that once you have established a business it will somehow build itself.

This thinking blinds you to the truth that you really build a business relationship by relationship.

You have to build relationships with your prospects, with your clients and customers, with suppliers and service providers. And don’t forget your banker, your funders and the government departments that you have to deal with.

You have to develop relationships with people who can advise and guide you, with people who have skills and resources that you don’t have and of course with your competition.

But you don’t go out there and build any and every relationship. Oh no! You have to be strategic in your networking and create trust with whom you build those relationships.

7.  Grow your business fast with “Right Action!”

This must have seemed kind of obvious to you and shame on those who didn’t see it coming!

To achieve any of the other six essentials listed above, you need to take action. But again, taking action is not like buying a lotto ticket and hoping for the best.

You have to figure out the next “right action”  that you have to take, especially when you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom.

Figuring out what to do next, often requires you to become good at making decisions and asking for help. Don’t let this frighten you.

You can get help with making smart and lasting decisions here.

In terms of asking for help, just remember that asking for help when you need it is a strength, not a weakness. Furthermore, very often is the first “right” action that you must take. So start by building your network…

Your next steps to grow your business fast 

I strongly believe that when you are presented with new information, you are compelled to act. What I’m trying to say, it’s very hard for you to pretend it never happened. Especially in business.

That’s why I’m 100% confident that you will act on this information and grow your business fast without having to put out any or much money.

That’s why I made the post quick and easy for you to read. They all really represent a great business solution that I want you to take.

Listen, if you and your business are not making the money you want and you’ve tried all that you know,  then try any or all of the essentials above.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

To your fast business growth…